


You Calm My Raging Seas

by Bamsbutt



Category: GOT7
Genre: Anxiety!JB, College!AU, Lowkey Yugbam, M/M, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 05:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9643442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bamsbutt/pseuds/Bamsbutt
Summary: He looked back at Jackson, who was still talking, leaning his head on JB’s shoulder as he babbled about… something. Jaebum couldn’t quite remember what it was, he’d gotten lost as soon as the younger boys head had rested heavily on his shoulder. But Jackson didn’t complain, he just continued to talk, not expecting an answer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So this was written for [ Ultravioletrainbows ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultravioletrainbows/pseuds/ultravioletrainbows) GOT7 Winter exchange! <3  
> It was written for [ Flightlog-arrival ](http://flightlog-arrival.tumblr.com/)  
> I hope you liked it! <3  
> You can find all the works in the exchange [ here. ](http://got7winter.livejournal.com/)
> 
> Prompt: Social butterfly Jackson meets anti social Jaebum at a party off campus. No one expects them to get along, but quite shockingly, the two become very close very quickly.
> 
> Just a disclaimer, I've never been to America, and i'm not really a party person so this was written from my limited TV + Fic knowledge. I hope its okay! <3

“Markkkkk! Come on! We’re running late!” JB called to his friend exasperatedly. He was in the hallway outside Mark’s dorm waiting for him. They’d been looking forward to this party all week, and while there was no strict arrival time, they both wanted to be there early so they had more time to enjoy themselves.

“Aish, I’m coming!” JB heard his friend call from the other side of the door.

“Mark, you don’t even have your pants on.” He heard Mark’s roommate Youngjae say. JB could imagine Youngjae’s eyes rolling as he spoke, not even looking up from the game he was probably playing. The younger roommate was staying home to ‘study’ before his test the next day.

“Shushh~ I’m almost ready, and you shouldn’t be playing that anyway!” The eldest scolded as JB heard some more scuffling in the room, before the door swung open at last. “I’m ready.” Mark grinned as he exited the room.

“Finally!” JB said over dramatically, waving to Youngjae before they turned around and walked down the hall to exit the building.

The party wasn’t too far away, only about a 10-minute walk from their dorms. It was being hosted by someone who was fairly rich had a large house not far from their college. Neither of them knew the host, but their younger friends Bambam and Yugyeom had told them about the party he was having, and they had immediately made plans to attend.

Jaebum was fairly introverted and, hence, didn’t get out much. It didn’t mean he found parties unenjoyable, he just had to be suitably prepared for social outings. But since a lot of the time the parties were hastily arranged, it didn’t leave a lot time for him to be comfortable with leaving his dorm.

It was frustrating, having to prepare for large social situations just because of his anxiety. It was making him angry just thinking about it. Was it too much to ask to be able to go out whenever he wanted like a normal person?

Jaebum sighed and shook himself out of his thoughts as they approached a fancy, two storey house. The walls were vibrating with the heavy bass of the music that shook through them. There were a couple of people peppered on the lawn as they walked in, and a few more inside the hallway that they entered. Even though Mark was running late they were still quite early, so there weren’t too many guests to wade through before they found the alcohol.

Once they had their drinks they moved together into what seemed to be the main party area, finding Yugyeom and Bambam there. JB was pulled by Mark towards the couch they were occupying and he plopped down next to Bambam. His Thai friend must have been pre-drinking back at the dorms since he had already begun to slur his words.

“Heeeyyyyy! What took you guys so long?” Bambam asked, throwing his arm around JB’s shoulders jubilantly.

“Someone decided to take forever to get ready.” JB dobbed, glaring playfully at Mark.

“Hey! We’re still super early! There aren’t even that many people here.” Mark whined and gave JB a light punch on the arm.

“Well, whatever, you’re here now! Let’s go dance!” Their youngest friend exclaimed happily, pulling Bambam with him towards the dance area. JB turned to grin at Mark, before pulling his friend up off the couch as well and dragging him along to where Bambam and Yugyeom had started moving to the music.

It was about half an hour later, once the party had been filled – almost to the brim – with guests, the four boys could be found back on the couch they had claimed earlier, talking amicably.

Mark had noticed JB had started to shut himself off, only replying when he needed to, and not contributing to conversations very much. Mark realised that his friend needed a break from the crowds of the party. He was just about to make an excuse to leave with said friend when he noticed a very energetic boy bounding towards them. 

“Oh no.” Yugyeom said, following Mark’s eye line.

“What? Who is that?” The eldest of the group asked.

“What? You don’t know him?” Yugyeom said. “Everyone knows him, its almost impossible not too!”

“That, my friend, is Jackson Wang. Our gracious and overly energetic host.” Bambam interjected, filling in some of the blanks.

“What wrong with him?” Mark questioned.

JB looked up, taking in the guy who was heading towards them in a rush. He had bleach blonde hair, as well as toned arms and thick thighs. He was quite short, which JB decided made him seem more lovable. He had a wide face, sincere eyes and a strong jaw line, giving him the tough guy look that probably made him slightly intimidating when he wasn’t smiling.

“Nothing at all, he’s actually a lot of fun! That’s why everyone knows him. He’s nice to literally everyone and he always makes an effort to remember your name even if you’ve only met him once or twice. Its why he’s so popular.” Bambam grinned brightly.

“Yeah, but he’s a lot to handle sometimes. Very excitable… And I have a feeling JB isn’t super up to it right now.” Yugyeom admonished his friend with a light tap on his leg. “He needs a people break.”

JB smiled, thankful for his amazing friends. It wasn’t the first time they had tried to work around his anxiety even when it ruined their plans.

“He might not have enough time to escape though.” Bambam frowned as Jackson took the last few steps towards them, squeezing through the crowd to reach them. 

“Yugyeom! Bambam! You made it!” toned boy beamed at them excitedly. “I’m glad you came! I’m so excited! I’m going to say hello to every single person here! There’s so many people!”

JB noticed Jackson was practically bouncing on the spot as he spoke. It was kind of endearing, he decided.

Jackson turned to Mark and JB, holding his hand out in greeting. “I’m Jackson by the way! This is my party! It’s nice to meet you! You guys are friends with Yugbam?”

Mark gave his charming smile as he shifted to shield his friend slightly, taking over the introductions. “Hi Jackson, I’m Mark, and this is JB. Yugyeom and Bambam were the ones who told us about your party.” Mark said, gesturing to JB when he had introduced him. JB stayed silent, as he usually did around people he didn’t know. It was easier to let Mark, or whoever else he was with take care of the conversation.

“Nice to meet you! I’m hoping to eventually meet everyone here. Wait, I said that already…. But whatever, there’s a lot more people here than I thought there would be! I’m struggling a little with all my introductions. Are you guys at college with Bambam and Yugyeom? What are you studying?” Maybe it was just in his head, but JB noticed that Jackson shined when he spoke. He exuded confidence, but at the same time he got the feeling that the shorter male didn’t believe he was any better than anyone else.

“I’m studying Journalism and JB is doing Photography.” Mark said. “We we’re actually just heading out to get some food, so we wont keep you.” He explained as he stood up. 

“Actually I’m not really hungry.” JB spoke up suddenly, causing four heads to turn in his direction. “But I’ll be fine here if you need food Mark.” His friend looked at him quizzically, but he shrugged it off, turning back towards Jackson to ask him a question. “What are you studying?”

Jackson frowned a little, in confusion, but he shook it off in favour of answering the mysterious boy in front of him. “International studies, with a minor in Nutrition and Dietetics.” He smiled.

“Oh, that’s really cool. Does that mean you know a few languages, or just about different countries?” JB asked curiously, sliding over to make room for him to sit down next to him.

Jackson bounded over to the couch like a large, excitable dog, and sat down next to his new friend before explaining the in’s and out’s of his degree.

“Kind of both. We have to learn a language as a requirement for our degree, but we also learn about international issues like climate change and things like that.” He explained enthusiastically. JB realised that there wasn’t much he had seen of Jackson (even in only 10 minutes of knowing him) that was done without passion. 

They stayed like that for a while, just sitting and talking over the volume of the music. Sometime while they were talking Yugyeom and Bambam and gotten up to dance again, and Mark had sighed and gone to find someone else to talk to. JB felt sorry for leaving him out, but he was having too much fun talking to Jackson to actually do anything about it. He would make it up to his friend later, he promised himself.

It was getting late, JB realised, when he looked around and saw the thinning crowd. They’d been sat on the couch in Jacksons lounge room for hours, talking about everything, anything. Well, mostly Jackson was talking, and JB was nodding along to his words.

JB felt less anxious now than he had at any social gathering he’d ever been to and he wondered if his new friend had anything to do with it.

He looked back at Jackson, who was still talking, leaning his head on JB’s shoulder as he babbled about… something. Jaebum couldn’t quite remember what it was, he’d gotten lost as soon as the younger boys head had rested heavily on his shoulder. But Jackson didn’t complain, he just continued to talk, not expecting an answer. His eyes drifted shut as he listened, his arm falling around Jacksons shoulder, content to have him close.

“Your boyfriend seems to be waiting for you.” Jackson said, suddenly changing the topic, his voice sounding hard. JB’s eyes snapped open, and he looked down at Jackson in confusion.

“My boyfriend?”

“Yeah, he’s over there.” Jackson clarified, nodding his head over in the direction of the hallway where Mark was standing. Jaebum looked over, and Mark waved, tapping his watch to show that he was ready to leave.

Jackson stood up swiftly, and JB missed the warmth that had been at his side.

“You better go to him; he looks like he wants to go.” Jackson said stiffly.

JB chuckled, making a gesture to Mark to ask for five more minutes. “He’s not my boyfriend.” He grinned, turning back to Jackson, but his face fell when he realised he had slipped away. He hadn’t even said goodbye. He hung his head walking over to Mark so they could leave for the dorms.

They walked in companionable silence, Mark was messing around with his phone while JB thought about Jacksons weird disappearance. It was true that they hadn’t known each other for long, but they’d been talking for several hours, and Jaebum thought that at least warranted a goodbye and a plan to catch up again sometime. _Apparently not_ , he frowned.

“Hey, you good? You weren’t too anxious back there right? You seemed really chill so I just left you alone, but I wasn’t sure if that would be okay after what Bambam and Yugyeom had said about that Jackson guy.” Mark looked over at him, breaking through his thoughts.

“Yeah, sorry for deserting you, I know we planned to hang out…”

“Nah it’s cool, I was just checking in with you. I went and hung out with Bambam and Yugyeom for the most part. That was… an experience.” Mark grimaced. “But fun anyway. You two looked pretty close, did you have a good night?”

“Yeah, it was really good. Jackson was really cool, and funny, and even though he looks like he can definitely be hyper, he was super chill. We just talked all night.” JB gushed. “It was good, I had a lot of fun with him. But he left really suddenly…” he frowned again, wondering why his new friend had disappeared so abruptly. “He didn’t even say goodbye.”

He didn’t know why it bothered him so much.

Mark nodded, “Yeah, he rushed off really unexpectedly considering he’d been with you all night.” He mused.

“Yeah.” Jaebum agreed, dropping the conversation as they continued home.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t too long before Jaebum saw Jackson again. Only about a week after the party where they’d met. It probably helped that he’d asked Yugyeom about Jacksons schedule and extra curricular’s. But he definitely hadn’t started hanging around where Jackson was likely to be found…

So when he had accidently run into Jackson on his way to the science building’s study area he couldn’t say he was too surprised (since the only reason he would be in the science building was because he knew Jackson was taking nutrition subjects).

He smiled when he saw Jackson walking towards him, purposely moving into the path he was walking and almost having to run into him before he was noticed. The shorter male lifted his head with an irritated look on his face, before he realised who was standing in front of him.

“Hey.” JB said.

“Hey.” Jackson replied awkwardly. “How are you?”

“You didn’t say goodbye to me at the party, you just disappeared. I was kinda hoping I could see you again.” Jaebum said straightforwardly, skipping all the empty small talk. He hadn’t been stalking Jackson to just discuss the weather.

Jackson was silent for a few seconds while he looked down at his feet.

“I don’t think your boyfriend would approve…” he mumbled, scuffing the toe of his shoe on the path.

Jaebum rolled his eyes, gently taking Jacksons chin in his hand and raising his head so that he could meet his eyes. “Jackson, I don’t have a boyfriend.” He insisted.

“What about that Mark guy?” Jackson asked, getting defensive. “He was definitely acting like your boyfriend! Not letting you answer questions and acting all distrustful when I came to introduce myself. He was even going to get you to leave until you told him you didn’t want to.” He scowled, his gaze now challenging, but he frowned when JB started laughing softly. 

“I’m sorry, I hadn’t realised that was how it looked otherwise I would have said something.” He smiled at the blonde haired boy. “Mark was doing all that because of my terrible anxiety. I’d started reaching my people limit, which normally means I need to leave and have some time to myself, so Mark was just giving me an out without having to be rude. I’m really lucky that my friends are so understanding. But even so, he is _just_ _my friend._ ”

Jaebum explained, he didn’t want this misunderstanding to ruin what could be with Jackson. He’d never met anyone who was able to make him feel more energised when he was out of people power, but within the first five minutes of knowing Jackson he had already felt better. Even with all the people at the party and the loud pumping music, Jackson had made him feel like he could conquer anything.

“Oh.” Jackson looked sheepish. “I didn’t realise you had anxiety. You didn’t act like it last week, apart from at the very start I guess…” Jackson looked contemplative, as if he was back at the party.

“That’s because you were making it feel like I didn’t.” the older boy told him confidently.  “No one’s ever done that for me before. I like it.” JB said, trying to shrug it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “I like you…”

Jackson took his words and held them tight, with all of his might. “You like me? You don’t think that I’m loud, or dramatic, or annoying?” he worried his lip between his teeth.

“You’re not annoying!” JB objected. “Well, I mean, yes you’re loud and a little dramatic, but that’s part of why I like you. Just because you’re you.” The brown haired boy smiled, his eyes forming crescents. “And I’d like to get to know you better.”

“I think I’d like that too.” Jackson replied after a short pause, a bright grin on his face. “How about I walk you to class? Where are you heading?”

“Uhhh… I mean, I was heading to the study hall…” JB answered, scratching at the back of his neck sheepishly as he avoided eye contact.

“Don’t you study photography? Why are you in the science building?” Jackson frowned.

“Yeah… I was kind of hoping I’d run into you.” JB looked up as Jackson threw his head back and he let out a loud, high pitched bark which devolved into giggles. “Shut up, how else was I supposed to see you, its not like you left your number.” JB grumbled, but he was smiling in spite of himself. He looked down as Jackson grabbed his hand and started walking towards the study area, swinging their hands between them.

 

“Hey I just realised,” Jaebum said as they walked, “You never got to meet everyone at your party,” he pouted.

Jackson grinned over at him, his eyes twinkling brightly. “Yeah but I got to meet you, and that’s the most important thing.”


End file.
